Four Blinn livestock judging team members selected as All-Americans

Gilfoil, Schram, West, Zimprich honored for academics, judging skill

April 20, 2026

Four members of the Blinn College livestock judging team have been named 2025-26 All-Americans, an honor given to only 15 community college students nationwide.

Ryleigh Gilfoil, Kenna Schram, Jhett West, and Paige Zimprich were named All-Americans by the Junior College Coaches Association. Selection criteria include cumulative grade point averages and performances at five national livestock judging contests. The All-America selections were announced at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo’s judging contest, the final contest of the 2025-26 season.

Blinn ended the 2025-26 season ranked third nationally by livestockjudging.com, placing in the top five at every competition.

Adrian Austin coaches the team alongside Quest Newberry.

“We have been honored to coach Jhett, Paige, Ryleigh, and Kenna,” said Austin. “Having four of the 15 total students selected as All-Americans this year is no small feat and is truly a testament to the culture Quest and I are trying to build with the livestock judging program.

“They are the purest examples of ‘student-athletes,’ so to speak. They are dedicated to their grades and classroom performance, while being immensely talented and constantly working to improve their livestock judging craft. These are exactly the type of young people we want representing Blinn College livestock judging, and they are extremely deserving of their All-American status.”

Gilfoil and Schram are both from Sealy. Zimprich is from Milnor, N.D., and West is from Sheridan, Wyo. All have earned scholarships to continue their livestock judging careers at four-year universities – Gilfoil at Texas Tech, Schram at Texas A&M, and Zimprich and West at Oklahoma State.

All four said their time at Blinn exceeded their expectations.

“It’s pretty tough to be this far away and not see your family for so many different occasions,” West said, “but I can happily say that in all my experiences at Blinn, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I’ve met so many great people and made so many connections in the industry that I never thought I could establish.”

Gilfoil said selecting Blinn helped her judging career.

“The way livestock judging works, if you go straight to a four-year university, you don’t get to judge until your third year,” she said. “They tell you if you want to judge, go the junior college route. I’m really glad I came here.

“You tell people you go to Blinn College and they know exactly where you’re from. It’s definitely lived up to all my expectations.”

Schram was already very familiar with Blinn prior to arriving on campus. She had attended its livestock judging camps for years and had three older siblings who also judged at the College.

“I was incredibly excited to see what my judging experience would be, and now that my two years are coming to an end, I’m proud to say I wouldn’t have traded it for anything in the world,” she said. “It’s far exceeded every expectation and bar that I ever had.”

Zimprich, West, and Schram said they found support from Austin, Newberry, and teammates as the judging year progressed.

“Coming here from so far away, I wanted to go where I could rely on people,” Zimprich said. “These are definitely people I can rely on. If we have any questions, we can go right to them.”

“There’s a teammate of ours who always leads our prayers in the morning of the contests and the night before,” said West. “He always talks about us being like family, and I think that’s really resonated throughout these past two years. We’ve gone through our ups and downs, each and every one of us. We’ve faced hardships and we’ve fallen back on each other as teammates. That’s been one of the coolest parts of us being from so many areas.”

“I think the reason we are so close and everything worked together in the end was because livestock judging isn’t easy,” Schram said. “The long nights, the early mornings are incredibly difficult, but at the end of the day, the only other people who know what you’re going through are your 15 teammates. I think that’s what pulled everybody together and made it all work.”

Livestock judging is part of Blinn’s Agricultural Sciences Program, which has one of the most active extracurricular programs in the state, including the Agriculture Club, wildlife, agriculture mechanics, and horticulture.

Blinn offers agriculture classes on all its campuses, with the W.J. “Bill” Rankin Agricultural Complex on the Brenham Campus serving as the program’s headquarters.

For more information, visit www.blinn.edu/agricultural-sciences.